Teddy; The Poem

I don't usually write poems about teddy bears or things of that nature, my topics are usually about love, nature, social issues among many others. I only wrote this one because a friend needed a poem for a school assignment; it could have been about a rose or teddy bear but I chose the teddy bear and so here it is:

Teddy
By Delroy “Nesta” Williams

Every time I look at you
Your big brown eyes
Staring right back at me

But your lips are always sealed
Wish I could read your thoughts
And pull the words out of your mouth

You listen to my every complain
Never the one to judge or cast blame

I feel so safe knowing
You look over me while I sleep
Earth’s Angel, taking care of me

Truly unlike the other guys in my life
Never demanding a thing from me
While giving so much of yourself

That’s why I love you so
My dear
My big, brown teddy bear


The poem is also in my first poetry book; One Room Shack

Quote of the Week: Strength

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

by Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi ( or "Great Soul", an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore) and in India also as Bapu ("Father"). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, for expanding women's rights, for building religious and ethnic amity, for ending untouchability, for increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the Non-cooperation movement in 1922 and in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (249 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on numerous occasions, in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of Ahimsa, Gandhi swore to speak the truth, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

For more information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

http://www.mkgandhi.org/

Blue Blue, Estate For True

If you're a home-based Dominican, particularly one who follows the local pop culture, an avid follower of sports, particularly football (soccer) or just someone who listens to the radio then you would surely have heard this catch phrase a million and one times.

Blue, Blue, Estate For True: has become a calling card for the thousand of young persons living in the former lime fields (Lacourdre) or now referred to as Bath Estate. Long infamous for its "wild" youth, Estate can now boast of its influence on the local entertainment and sporting scene.

The youth of the community has long been known to support local musical giants Triple Kay and even WCK. The bands can thank the juveniles from the outskirts of Roseau for a number of its hits including peanut, send your body, sorti dessan and more recently a number of chants used during their jam sessions.

Bath Estate is also youthfully famous for another reason, its football team. For years the team came up short in the local competitions to rivals like Harlem United, St. Joseph, Dublanc, Southeast United and even Cesseme in the Newtown Football League. But now the team has put those days of being runners up behind them and are leading the way. According to sources on the team 4D Ag Centre Bath Estate is the future of football in Dominica with key players on all national teams (a total of nine on the senior team).

With it's first national Premiere League championship last year (2007-2008) the team qualified for the CFU/CONCACAF Club Champions Cup and now has the task of taking on 2-time champions, W. Connection of Trinidad and Tobago. A team full with international stars from countries like Columbia, Brazil, Venezuela, Trinidad, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and the Dominican Republic.

The match takes place at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium on Wednesday 18th March from 7:00pm and is the biggest football match to hit the new stadium. Organizers expect over 7,000 persons to flood the stadium fully clad in blue. A colour known to spur on the team, although their official club colours are yellow and green (in respect of the days of the lime fields).

Blue, blue fever will be alive and kicking, one just hopes that it creates the twelvth man that Bath Estate needs to defeat the Caribbean giants.

In case you are wondering who I am rooting for, I am the public relations coordinator for the Bath Estate Football Club, a former player (2002 - 2007) and I live in Lime Street, the capital street of Bath Estate.

Nest@

P.S. The return leg takes place in Trinidad the following Wednesday March 25, 2009

Quote of the week: Shakespeare (King Henry IV)

This week's quote comes from Shakespeare in his play Henry IV. I guess it speaks for itself and demonstrates that a person with great responsibilities, such as a king, is constantly worried. Worried because of the challenges he faces, decisions he makes and opposition seeking his demise.

I'm not too much of a fan of Shakespeare, i still consider my English Literature classes from highschool and college to be pure torture. I guess the constant Shakespearean text at that age didnt really get me to appreciate his writing. I would just like to share the passage from which this quote was taken:

From Shakespeare's Henry IV. Part II, 1597.

KING HENRY IV:

How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,

That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,

Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile

In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast

Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains

In cradle of the rude imperious surge

And in the visitation of the winds,Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them

With deafening clamour in the slippery clouds,That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,

And in the calmest and most stillest night,

With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then happy low, lie down!

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Cricket, cricket, cricket

Whenever you mention cricket to a West Indian, the first and maybe only thing that comes to his mind is the West Indies team, our symbol of Caribbean integration.

But when my friend mentioned something about cricket to me, I was reluctant, because although I like the sport, I dont play. Well at least I only play softball cricket, I just dont think I could survive a bouncer with the regular cricket balls. But he was actually talking about the insect. He was going cricket hunting in Soufriere with coworkers from the Division of Forestry.

So here I was last night, on my way to the South of the island, in a group of four persons eager to get my hands dirty to collect cave crickets. They are called cave crickets because they hide between rocks and in small openings (miniture caves). I thought that catching crickets would be an easy task, we get there, put on our flashlights, search on the rocks and just collect them into our traps, what a rude awakening I recieved. It's a good thing I am a quick learner.

It is a good experience to walk through the forest during the day but nothing compares to night walks, that's when the forest and its critters come alive. I am an avid hiker and have walked through Dominica's forests many a times but I've always been disappointed with only spotting a few critters but not this time. Caterpillars, giant slugs, centipedes, frogs, snakes littered the forest floors but off course we were there on business, cricket business so everything else had to take a back seat, well at least I had to resort to only taking quick snap shots.

Now back to the hunting, that word makes it sound so dangerous, so I think I will refer to it as collecting. We got to Soufriere jsut after sunset, around 6:50 and already the place sounded so alive. Frogs, crickets and other insects made music, well at least to our ears. So we strapped on our headlights (similar to miners), collected our handmade traps (collection bins made from bottled water containers) and our nets (aquarium fishnets). We really improvised with our equipment.

At first I found it very difficult to catch one cricket, these critters jumped so fast and blended in so well with their environment (twigs, rotten leaves and forest litter). It took some time for the eyes to adapt to the area and for my hands to really getting used to the fast jumping activity of the crickets. I was on my hands and knees doing my best and still not one cricket found its way into my trap, what a disappointment.

Gradually I got the hang of it and at one time I even caught three of them in a row, I was feeling like a champion collector, lol. The rest of the night went on smoothly, we even stumbled upon a centipeded devouring a snake on the forest floor. All in all, it was a very good night, my first experience with collecting crickets but definitely not my last.

So now you can call me Delroy N. Williams, Cricket hunter, lol.

Just in case you are wondering why we were collecting crickets, there is a breeding program for crickets at the Botanic Gardens to feed the Crapaud or Mountain Chicken (Leptodactylus fallax), which is a frog that lives in Dominica and Montserrat. The population has declined by approximately 80 % in the last ten years and this species is now critically endangered. The fungal disease chytridiomycosis has had a dramatic effect on the population. So research efforts are on the wayto find a cure and to increase the numbers by a captive breeding program.

Locally, it is known as the Mountain Chicken for its large size and the fact it's hunted for food. As of 2007 eating the mountain chicken is discouraged because of its decreasing population due to the fungal disease. For more information check here.

Nest@

A guide book worth eating: Food and Drink Dominica

It is not normal to actually eat a book, nor would I actually encourage eating a book or any of its pages for a matter of fact. But I must warn persons before they pick up a copy of the 2nd Annual Edition of Food and Drink Guide for Dominica.Wai'tukubuli 2009, that they should ensure that they are filled and not hungry or dieting. Because this book is not for the faint in spirit but for those who have a huge appetite for Caribbean/Creole cooking or the person just looking for a hangout spot around the island.

I don't normally review books, or anything at all but ever since I saw the first edition I have been looking forward to future publications and this year's copy didnt disappoint. The guide book which was created and published by Leeward Consultants and Assoc. Ltd has the dedicated and spirited Mrs Celia Sorhaindo as its Editor In Chief as well as a hardworking team that ensures that the Dominican cooking experience calls out to you once you open its pages.

Besides photos and recipies for food and drinks, the 2nd Edition also captures a number of special interest stories (Editorial Features) on organic production, sheep conservation, school feeding programs (fish), coffee production, Fort Young Hotel as well as chef profiles, Dominican products and a list of hangout spots in every nook and cranny across the Nature Island of Dominica.

Before I end this blog, I must also mention that part of my enthusiasm about this edition came from an article (sheep conservation) that I submitted to the guide. It speaks of the National Association of Youth in Agriculture's (NAYA Inc) EWES project for sheep conservation in the Laudat Community (see page 84). I dont want to give too much away, you will have to pick up a free copy of the guide for yourself.

For more information check the website or email them at foodanddrinkdominica@gmail.com or Dominican contact number 1 (767) 449 3731 as mentioned in the guidebook.

Nest@